Global attention is mainly focused for the moment on the grave coronavirus crisis in Italy and the accelerating crisis that is developing in New York City and across the United States. But this is a truly global pandemic with some astonishing twists that never could have been predicted.
One of the biggest surprises is the severe situation that Switzerland finds itself in. The majestic mountain redoubt that is so organized that you can set your watch by the trains, because they are rarely even a few seconds late, has the second-highest rate of COVID-19 infection in the world. The rate of infection is going up so quickly -- 758 new cases on Saturday -- that the government says it has been having trouble keeping track of the growing numbers.
Italy still tops the coronavirus table with 886 people infected for every million citizens. Unbeknownst to most of the world, Switzerland is second with 793 cases of the virus per million people and closing on Italy's lead. Lucky Canada has 35 infections per million people, though that may only because we are latecomers to the pandemic.
Switzerland’s Federal Council declared “an extraordinary situation” for the first time ever, giving itself special powers that are usually held by the country’s 26 cantons. For example, all gatherings of more than five people have been outlawed.
Watching the snow melt in splendid sunny isolation on her balcony in Davos, Liz Soguel was obsessing Saturday over whether she and her Swiss-Canadian husband, Jeff, should return immediately to their home in Cobourg, Ont., or wait things out in a country they both love and admire and have been working and studying in for the past two years.
“We are a little nervous,” Soguel said. “Our public life has shut down here, but maybe a bit too late. A lot of people here still led normal lives until this week. So many tourists were in town to go skiing. Everyone was moving around on crowded buses instead of staying home and socially distancing themselves. All the hotels were still full of tourists, though the ski hills had closed down.”
It is a different Davos today. Streets in the chic German-speaking resort town are mostly deserted. Only one or two hotels are open.
Like in most of Canada, everything else except food stores, pharmacies, banks and post offices are shuttered.
Those who are out and about are either cross-country skiing, jogging or cycling. But with more than 200 infections detected in the small canton already, those who get some exercise are practising at least two metres of separation...…...More
